In the days of hand-drawn animation, a group of top Disney animators came together and defined twelve rules of animation that, when applied properly, would create amazing animation and an engaging experience for the audience. In 1981 Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston released a book titled 'The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation', which detailed all 12 principles.

Since then, animators around the world have studied and applied these techniques. Although they were originally created for hand-drawn animation, these 12 principles apply directly to our modern computer generated animation. Whenever you set a keyframe in any application, you should be thinking of the 12 principles of animation.01. Introduction and project overview02. Timing and spacing03. Ease in and ease out04. Anticipation05. Squash and stretch06. Exaggeration07. Follow-through and overlapping action08. Pose to pose and straight ahead action09. Secondary Action10. Arcs, smooth motion and the Graph Editor11. Staging and the rule of thirds12. Solid drawing13. Defining and creating appeal14. Automating follow-through with expressions